How to Make Inexpensive Lighting for an Outdoor Party

A plain mason jar becomes a hanging pendant with some help from you and a convenient tree branch.

The midsummer night party might set you back a rent payment, but you can save a bundle on decor by making your own outdoor lights. Inexpensive and inventive party lights borrow from your recycling stash and require almost no outlays of cash to illuminate. Assemble some light sticks. tea lights, holiday strings, old cans and bottles, and get busy lighting up the night -- or at least your backyard.

Catching Fireflies

Set your party table under a tree with a low-hanging branch and then invite a sprinkle of fireflies and a rain of stars to join you for the festivities. Hang outdoor icicle lights from the tree branch, interspersed with mason jars that have been wired and fitted with low-wattage or LED bulbs. Tap out or cut a circular hole in the lid of the clear glass jar so you can attach the socket for the bulb. The cord should be long enough to wrap twice around the tree branch and reach the power source. Add the light bulbs and screw the lids on the jars before positioning them along the branch over the table. The glass jars provide most of the illumination, and the icicle lights make a cascade of twinkles around the scene.

Torches from Trash

Save your old glass wine and water bottles to help ward off mosquitoes and light up your backyard party. Remove the labels from the bottles, clean and dry them. Colored bottles such as those made of blue or green glass are especially beautiful once you turn them into torches, but any bottle with a 1-inch-diameter neck will do. Attach each bottle to a patio wall or fence with a top plate connector, a threaded rod, a split ring hanger and some screws and hex nuts. The split ring hanger grips the neck of the bottle, suspending it vertically, while the rod keeps it a few inches away from the fence or wall. A copper coupling, wrapped in synthetic nonstick tape to snug it into the mouth of the bottle, grasps the wick. Use patio torch mosquito-fighting oil in the bottles with the wicks inserted to soak up the fuel and burn for hours.

Icy Brilliance

Get some glow going on your party table with large glass bowls, ice and chilling bottles of wine or soda pop. Set the clear bowls in a line down the center of the drinks table or the dining table -- depending on whether the party is a serve-yourself buffet or a sit-down meal. Run a few strings of clear fairy lights, twined in greenery, down the center of the table, arranging them around the bowls. Place colored light sticks or necklaces in each bowl, dump in the ice, and nest the bottles in the ice. Just before the party starts, plug in the fairy lights and break the light sticks to allow the chemicals to mix and produce a colored glow that shimmers through the ice and sparkles off the bottles.

Cannery Row

Light up your fence top with twinkling cans and tea lights. Save a winter's worth of tin cans, clean them, and remove the tops and labels. Make a simple pattern on paper of a star shape, a cross or X, or a spiral and tape the paper to a can. Wear safety goggles and use a metal drill bit to make holes in the can according to the pattern. You can tap the holes with a fat nail and a hammer instead, but it will take more effort and time. Spray each can with primer, brush on a colorful top coat, add a tea light and line up the cans along a fence or terrace wall for a cheap, bright party vibe at night.